Photographer Wolfgang Bellwinkel grew up in West Germany, and he said he was not particularly interested in life on the other side of the Iron Curtain when he was younger. But as Germany came together, he developed a growing interest in his secluded neighbors to the East.

Photographer Jordi Ruiz Cirera first visited Bolivia in 2011 after hearing about a religious community occupying the province of Santa Cruz. Mennonites, whose families fled Germany around the 16th century, separate themselves from other locals to preserve their ancestral lifestyle.